In the year 2015 A.D., the world as we know it is in chaos. No, perhaps, chaos is too kind of a word. The world, as far as they know, the entire Earth, is for all purposes, dead. If only they'd known that this would happen... if only humans weren't always so short-sighted. Perhaps the tragedy could have been avoided.

Six years ago, researchers discovered a new life form existing at the bottom of our oceans. They were simple beings, looking like simple eels of some sort, only slightly bigger and with a pale red colouring, and deep red crest from the head along to the back. The creature was, as of yet, unrecorded as any subspecies of eel, and they took a few into captivity to research them, as their behavior patterns seemed different than what would be expected of an eel. What they discovered surprised them.

It didn't take them long to realize that these creatures displayed an unusual level of aggressiveness, both towards the other eels, and towards their human captors. Not only were they forced to give each of the four eels it's own holding tank, but one of the caretakers lost a finger while trying to feed them one day. Furthermore, the creatures were unwilling to eat much of anything, unless it was another sort of eel. They began research on the genetic make-up of the creatures, wanting to perhaps discover the cause of the unusual behavior. This is what they discovered.

None of the eels had any sort of genetic difference than the common eels they kept in their lab as food for their subjects. Instead, they found that the creatures seemed to be infected with some strange bacteria. It seemed to effect the creature's brains in a way. After a while, they managed to isolate the strange infection and get some for themselves. Curious to see more of it's real affects, they managed to successfully cause the bacteria to multiply, and injected the infection into a rat.

Within hours, the creature's aggression increased greatly. It killed the other rats in the cage and snarled and bit at the researchers, even trying to get at them through the glass of it's case. After doing some more tests, they realized what the bacteria was doing; it was affecting the area of the brain that deals with adrenaline and aggression, and shutting down other parts. But, with a rat, it was difficult to tell the real significance of it. Their next step was a human host. By now, two years had passed since they first discovered the eels.

They managed to get several people to volunteer for testing, a total of three, though of course these people didn't know the true nature of the tests. What they discovered when the people were infected satisfied them. Sure enough, their levels of aggression increased greatly, and when forced to deal with situations that would cause a normal person's adrenaline to rise, the rise was far more significant than average. Upon studying the brain activity of one of the subjects, they discovered that the bacteria seemed to mostly target that area of the body. It also shut down areas, as they'd expected; the areas used for emotion, and logical thinking. It seemed that there might be others as well, but it was difficult to tell.

In time, the subjects infection with the bacteria, which the scientists had named Kronus, seemed to grow worse. Their physical strength increased greatly, they grew even more aggressive, and though they never seemed to eat or sleep, they never seemed to grow weaker for it. However, their brains began to send out an almost constant signal of hunger, to the point of starvation. They began conducting different sorts of tests; they attacked the subjects within their containment areas, using guns and assorted other weapons, along with people. Though they retained wounds, they healed amazingly fast, and never fell. The people who were sent to fight them were slaughtered.

Deciding that they'd discovered something worthwhile, they presented their findings to the government. They had a plan, now: with Kronus, they could create armies, unstoppable armies, who never needed provision or rest, who could go through leagues of average soldiers without missing a beat. The government, of course, quickly agreed. They provided substantial funds for the research to continue.

But one member of the team was overcome by human greed and ambition at this point. He took one of the sample containers of the Kronus bacteria and left in secret, planning to sell it to military officials to make money for himself. But on the way, the container was lost. A week later, the first report came in: a household was slaughtered, with one member, the young daughter, missing. The father, mother, and older brothers were all dead, their bodies left lying in pieces all over the house. Not all of the parts could even be located. Not long after that, more reports began coming in: households, and after a while, towns. It was now four years after the original discovery of the eels.

It was quickly realized what had happened; the bacteria had been released, and had infected people at an alarmingly fast rate, which only seemed to be increasing. Soon, whole towns were infected. Then whole regions. Then, whole countries. Within a year, all hope of fighting it had been lost. The world was overrun. A year later, there was nothing left but death. The creatures were never satisfied with eating regular food. Just like the eels had, they seemed to crave only the taste of their own kind: other humans. And it seemed that they were always starving, no matter what. A few people discovered that the creatures could in fact be killed; if the heads were gone, the creature died. But as long as the head was intact, it would regenerate after a time.

Now, there are few survivors left. Those who are living are simply trying to last, hoping that salvation will come. The creatures overrun the cities and towns; like grotesque, warped, humans, with skin covered in lacerations and scabs as from an infection, and coloured a sickly grey. From the now serious state of the infection, they've adapted further abilities to serve their purposes, though not all of them are known, or necessarily want to be.

This is the tale of a few of those survivors, a group of adults in what was once the prospering world.


***************************


Setting

[i]::The story takes place in a large city. There are three places of residence where you can choose for your character to be residing. All three of these places are in the same city, not far from each other (a few blocks each).

::The first is a run-down, dingy old apartment, littered with old heroine needles and cigarette butts. It's big-ish, for an apartment, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small living room that's attached to a tiny kitchen. The whole place stinks of smoke and the residue of alcohol and drugs. The lighting is poor. It's generally not a very nice place, but it's floors and floors above the ground, and at least safe. More than likely, it was once the house for a bunch of drug addicts. This is house one.::

::The second place is a large, abandoned hotel. Not all of the rooms are accessible; collapsed hallways and weak, burned out floors make getting to some places difficult. All of the stairways have been blocked off or destroyed. Only the first floor is available, which has about twenty rooms, along with the lobby, pool area, and eatery. The pool is still full, but the water is full of things that you probably don't want to think about. Unfortunately, only about seven of the bedrooms on this floor are usable. and the place has limited power. The rooms all consist of two beds and a bathroom. There's also a little microwave. They also all have windows looking out into the city. It's comfortable and more spacious, even if the place is run-down and rotting, but it's less safe than the apartment. This is house two.::

::The final place is a family home, nestled between a set of townhouses. It has two floors, with two bedrooms, each on the second floor, and a bathroom on the second floor. There's another bathroom on the main floor; only this one has a shower. The other has a sink and toilet. There's a kitchen, living room, and office on the main floor as well as the bathroom. There's also a space that may at one point have been a library of sorts. As with the hotel, the place is very run down and in extremely poor condition. The power isn't faulty, but not everything works. The water coming from the taps isn't drinkable. This is house three.::

You can pick any one of these places for your character to live. More than one character will be living in each place; each home as advantages and disadvantages, so choose wisely. Bear in mind, the abominations seem to have trouble opening closed doors, and locked doors seem to be impossible for them, but they are incredibly strong.

INFECTIONS

::People are infected with the Kronus bacteria only by the transfer of bodily fluids. Since I'm assuming that no one's going to be making out with or sleeping with any of the Infected, I'm going to say the only way is by having the creature's blood get into yours, or by the creature's saliva getting into your blood, etc. (If they bit you hard enough to break the skin, you'd probably be in some trouble. And normally, that's the sort of bite you get with them.). If they simply scratch you or something, if none of their body fluids get into yours, you'll be fine.

The infection takes hold very quickly, and progresses within ten hours. At this point is when the aggression begins, and the person is no longer safe to be around. Up until then, the symptoms are almost flu-like. The subject will run a very high fever almost immediately, and the area of contact, if a wound of some sort, may become seriously infected. After about an hour, they get delerious. The colour starts to drain from their skin after hour three or four, depending on the person. Throughout the entire time, they're unable to eat or drink and keep anything down. The next few hours, until hour ten, normally vary a bit; they may go between fits of emotional bewilderment, where they'll be rambling on and on to themselves, and generally look like they're tripping out really bad or something, and times where they simply sit and stare into nothing without responding to any outside stimuli. The aggression begins around hour seven when they become extremely irritable and even prone to fits of rage. The infection has set in completely by hour ten.

It's unknown whether or not a cure for the infection was found before the infection had spread too far. However, there's speculation that if there was, the only time when the cure could be effective is before the infection had completely set in, at ten hours.


Rules

::Age Restrictions:: The age range of the characters must be between sixteen and thirty-five.

::Race Restrictions:: This is based in a post-apocalyptic, but modern based world. We're all humans here.

::I'm not totally sure on the main rules on this. I'll allow swearing for now, but nothing too vulgar, and keep it too a reasonable level. However, no derogatory remarks are allowed (i.e. n*****. Stuff like that is a no).

Just a friendly reminder of the RolePlayGateway Rules:
We require everyone to maintain common sensitivity, which means:
- No public intimacy (this includes roleplay)
- No racist, bigoted, or excessively vulgar language.
- No pornography or otherwise rated "X" material.
Links to any page that violates our main decency rule is grounds for an immediate kickban and warning on your account.
Your rules are more than adequate but I thought I would add the official rules here to help if there is any confusion. Have a great role-play. Edited by Skallagrim 7-31-2008


::No one-liners, thanks. And please, check your spelling. We all make mistakes but keep it low.

::OOC goes here, not in the thread.

::No harassing other people.

::If you're gonna be gone for a little while, PM me and let me know. If you're gone for more than a week and I haven't heard from you, you'll be removed from the thread. If you come back and find you've been removed, but you have a good reason that you disappeared and didn't say anything, let me know, and we'll discuss letting you back in.

::No auto-hitting when fighting other characters, and no making your character out to be some unstoppable killing machine. We're humans.

::People who break the rules get one warning before I kick them out of here.


::Allowed::

::Romance is allowed, but if it gets to the point that it's inappropriate (SEX) then take it to PMs. I won't budge on this. Though...I dunno why people would wanna have sex in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The zombie might steal yer pants >>

::Violence is allowed, duh. But again, don't get too extreme.

::Killing other characters is alright, with the character owner's permission. I want a PM from them saying that they're cool with it. But you know, we're all supposed to be working together here anyways.

::You're allowed more than one character, but no more than three.

Basic Profile

Name:
Age:
Gender:
House (number one, two, or three):
Weapon(s):
Appearance:
Personality:
Bio:


------------------------------

My bio:


Name: Kira Walker

Age: Eighteen

Gender: Female

House: House one

Weapon: Various firearms, as well as a vast array of knives and other various blades. Her firearm of choice is her M9.

Appearance: Dark, crimson hair that falls in straight, slightly choppy strands down to her shoulders, with bands brushing near her eyes. Her skin tone is about average, though slightly on the pale side. Her eyes are a bright, firey blue, and she's a little bit on the short side, standing at about 5' 3". Her lifestyle has led to her body being decently toned; she has a slender build, and weighs in at about 115 lbs. Her average outfits normally consist of somewhat scrappy clothing; plain, normally dark-coloured well fitting t-shirts and tank-tops, and worn out, torn up denim jeans and shorts. The only footwear she owns is a pair of worn-out combat boots that clearly weren't made for her, but still fit her surprisingly well. Aside from that, she has a belt that she wears around her waist which contains many small compartments, which hold all of her basic utilities and the weapons she can fit. The majority of the weapons she carries on her person are hidden from view. She has a tattoo on her back; it reads In Nomeni Patri :: Et Fili :: Spiritus Sancti.

Personality:Her personality is somewhat of a mystery, because she tends to keep to herself more often than not. Many people who know her believe this is because she's slightly anti-social and doesn't really like people very much. This, in fact, isn't the case, but she's just fine with letting everyone believe that anyways. She's not very trusting of people she doesn't yet know well most of the time, and doesn't often reveal things about herself when she can help it. However, with people she trusts, she's very open, willing to tell them almost anything they want to know, and loyal until the end. She's very passionate about her opinions, and of those she has a lot. She's got an explosive temper when people get on her bad side. She's very honest and straightforward, to the point of being blunt, and doesn't feel the need to act a certain way to make herself seem nice. Because of this, many people have labelled her as a nasty person, but the fact is, she just doesn't like to sugar-coat anything.

Bio: Both of her parents died a year ago. They were slaughtered by a group of those abominations, while they were eating their dinner in the dining room. Foolishly, they'd left the patio door open, even knowing the danger. The heat had just been too great, and the air conditioner had been broken. They were both massacred. Kira herself barely managed to escape, only doing it because she locked herself on the inside of a cupboard until they gave up and left. She tried living with other relatives, and with friends, but eventually, they all met the same fate. By the time Kira was eighteen, she was completely on her own. She'd learned how to use a firearm and other weapons from various different people she'd lived with; by now, she was adept, and only grew better as she fought to stay alive. She's determined to not only survive, but to take as many of these creatures out as she can until her death, which to her, seems inevitable at this point. She found this apartment by chance; she's hoping it'll last longer than her last place.

Other: She really likes sushi and seafood, and sweet drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, though it's hard to get ahold of those things nowadays. She's an adept martial artist, but she's also skilled in other ways, like music. No one knows these things about her.

My bio:


Name: Jason Styx

Age: Twenty Six

Gender: Male

House: House one

Weapon: Sig-Sauer P226, three pairs of handcuffs, mace, flashlight, stab-proof gloves and a baton

Appearance: Relatively light hair cropped short seems matted to his head. He is of average height and weight, weighing in at about 170lbs and standing at roughly 6'2. His build is next to impossible to discern, as is adorned in standard issue police gear from the moddled black shoes, long deprived of any shine, to his badge which, to this day, still seems to glint in the sun despite the grime. You can tell from the look in his eyes, that he seems to be in another world. He tends to smile at the most inappropriate of times. The bulk of exposed skin comes in the form of heavily tattoo'd forearms that seem to hint to a rowdy childhood and criminal activity as opposed to a seasoned officer of the law.

Personality: Upon first glance, Jason seems like a model citizen. Slow to anger and even slower to fear, he tends to inspire quick action and calms those around him. He takes great pride in his standing as a "Police Officer" despite the fact that law and order has no place here. He seems meticulous in the way he cares for his uniform. When angered, he tends to go over the top, occasionally resorting to extreme brutality even when not necessary. On the whole, he tends to be pleasant to be around and even more pleasant to talk to. He seems to live for irony and is relatively sarcastic. His is articulate and well spoken in his speech.

Bio: From age six, Jason had lived on the streets having been abandoned by his parents due to psychopathic tendencies. A troubled youth, he turned quickly to a life of crime and violence. Spending time in prison did not help either. During a brief twenty-five-to-life stint in prison for murder, the virus hit. Using this to his advantage, he staged a large prison break, killing a police officer and stealing his uniform. He took great comfort from his ill-gotten respect and took on the identity of an officer of the law, and decided it for the best to remain in his new position. He is a dangerous person to be around and tends to rely on his intellect to mask his condition.

Other: Due to obsession, he has mastered his Sig-Sauer and has become a renowned marksman. He enjoys alcohol, but he tends to avoid it, as he feels it makes him more susceptible to psychological analysis.

Good job, Billyboy. Accepted of course